


A Coat of Silk the Color of the Sky

by dogtier



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-30
Updated: 2012-12-30
Packaged: 2017-11-22 22:20:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/614988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogtier/pseuds/dogtier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Calliope takes Roxy with her to meet the triumphant Muse of Space.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Coat of Silk the Color of the Sky

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zoamh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zoamh/gifts).



Roxy walked with her most of the way. Jane stayed where Dirk was still curled on the ground, Jake stayed with his young grandmother, held tight in her glowing green arms and her fierce stare that dared Calliope to try to put him in danger again. Calliope waved at them as she and Roxy left. As soon as they were out of sight Roxy grabbed Calliope's hand, holding tight. Even as the skin and bones shifted, turning from gray to green, she didn't let go. Even when the world inverted, sky shocking white with black dots of radiance piercing it, she didn't let the terror her shaking, sweating palms and pounding pulse betrayed send her running. Calliope was glad for it. She didn't think she could have done it alone. 

"It will be okay," Roxy said, shooshing Calliope. "It's only you."

Calliope stomach curled at the thought, twisting in and over itself into a tight heavy lump of worry. 

"It will be okay," Roxy said again, squeezing down on Calliope's hand so hard it hurt. "If it isn't I'll make it okay." 

"How will you do that?" Calliope asked.

"Don't doubt me," Roxy said. "I am a cherub soothing expert. I will make us a pile of the shittiest of fanfics and we'll jam those feelings right out of the other you." 

"I believe you," Calliope said. Roxy squeezed her hand again.

Calliope could feel the Muse's presence before they were within sight of each other. She couldn't think of the other her by her own name. It was too strange to do it. Maybe if she was still wearing her Callie clothes she would be happy letting the other woman claim the name Calliope, but things just weren't working out that way. The sky was still white at the center of the spiral, the path black under their feet and the figure in front of them clad in the same shade of green as Calliope.

"Hello," Calliope said, voice small and brittle. The figure shifted, turning and rising to its feet. She was huge, the other her was _huge_ , shoulders wide and arms bulky, her suit coat nearly bursting at every seam. She she moved, not lumbering but graceful in a way that seemed to defy logic, the universe flickered around her, green and red and sparkling. 

"Hello," the Muse said. "I was waiting."

Roxy flinched from Calliope's grip but she stayed at her side.

"Hello Roxy," the Muse said. "I've missed you. I had to send you away- a while ago. I don't remember anymore. I barely even remembered what your face looked like."

The Muse reached out, hand massive and claws glinting, but she paused before she reached Roxy's impassive face. Roxy took the next step, letting go of Calliope a moment to take the Muse's hand between her two, looking terribly dwarfed by it.

"I missed you to," Roxy said. Calliope resisted the urge to reach over and pull Roxy away from the Muse. To run and run back up the black path to where things made sense again. 

"Thank you, Roxy," the Muse said. She pulled her hand away. "But I think we have business."

The Muse folded her legs across each other as she sat. Even with Calliope standing she had to look up to meet the Muse's gaze. 

"You have a question for me," the Muse said. "I think. In most the the strings I followed you do, but we're in quite a mess right now. It's hard to know what is what anymore." 

"Strings?" Calliope asked.

"The universe, all universes, are made of strings," the Muse explained. "They tie everything together in a web. Right now we're at a knot, a particularly twisted one that has pulled in so many different strings from so many different places there's no hope of ever untangling them all."

"There's always hope," Calliope said.

"No," the Muse said. "That's what you don't understand yet. Sometimes you have to cut." 

"I don't like how that sounds," Calliope said.

"Ask your question."

"You already know what it is, why should I ask it?" Calliope snapped. Roxy laid a hand on Calliope's arm. The Muse watched them carefully.

"It was hard," the Muse said. "Winning. But it seemed so important at the time."

"At the time?" Calliope asked.

"Yes, at the time. It was so long ago. It's silly how I sat in my tower and worried that getting my hands dirty would change me."

"It did change you. You're not me."

"Why do you look at it that way? Maybe you're the one that's not me. At least not yet."

"You don't know that."

"No, I don't. That would require seeing the future and time is not our domain." 

Calliope struggled to keep her gaze locked on the Muse's white eyes. It was hard, they were so bright and it was starting to burn her vision, the edges turning black like crackling, burning film. 

"No, it's not ours," Calliope said, placing her hand over Roxy's. "But I have friends." 

The Muse blinked. 

"True," the Muse said. "You do have an advantage there. So are you going to ask yet?"

"Not yet," Calliope said. 

"You said you sent me away," Roxy said.

"I did," the Muse said. 

"Why?" Roxy asked.

"You wanted me too," the Muse said, sadly. "I don't blame you for it. You had the others to think about." 

Roxy didn't ask anymore. Her arm was shaking a bit, all the hairs standing on end. 

"We've already won, you know," the Muse said. "I could show you, the universe where we and him came together and won our game as a team, where we coordinated the spirals and knots necessary to bring everyone together, where we all sat on the ground watching the sunrise on our new world and were happy. I could pick you up and toss you in there to live content." 

"But not forever," Calliope said. "It's not safe is it?" 

"No," the Muse said. "Nothing is safe. The more distant it is from the current misery the less safe it is. The longer the string, the more vulnerable."

"We have to win here," Calliope said. "Here and now."

"Yes," the Muse said.

"And I have to do it, don't I?" 

"Yes."

"My question is stupid."

"Yes, it was." 

"Should I say something sappy here," Roxy interrupted. "About believing in yourself and having the power in you all along, or would that ruin the moment?"

"I would never stop you from speaking your mind," the Muse said. 

Roxy wrapped her arms around Calliope.

"Come on," Roxy said. "Get on in here."

The Muse smiled and laid her hand around Roxy's shoulder, squeezing gently.

"I guess I'll have to count that," Roxy said. "Though it's hardly a hug."

"Some other time," the Muse said.

"Don't you mean some other space?" Roxy said.

"I guess I do," the Muse said. "But before you go, I have one thing to teach you."

"I'm ready," Calliope said, stepping forward. 

The Muse leaned down and met her gaze. She said nothing and Calliope was on the verge of speaking when she saw it. Them. The strings, reflected in the white vastness of the Muse's eyes. Calliope blinked but each time she reopened her eyes they just glowed brighter.

"Oh," Calliope said.

"There," the Muse said. "That should help. You should be grateful, I had to discover that all out myself. It was a devil of a thing to figure out between wandering around on one bleeding leg on a dead planet." 

"Callie, are you okay?" Roxy asked. 

Calliope nodded. When she looked at Roxy she saw all the delicate tendrils of potential that wound around her. It made Calliope want to reach out and _tug_. She resisted the urge, instead just following the trail of the thickest string with her eyes, where it curved up the path they had entered, tethering Roxy to the world where her friends still waited.

"We should go," Calliope said. 

"Now?" Roxy asked. "But we-"

"Now," Calliope said. She paused. "No, one moment." 

The Muse waited docile as Calliope approached. She could see their strings, the same color and make but with different knots decorating their lengths. Calliope pressed their mouths together lightly, their teeth clacking. It was strange, but she was sure the Muse understood the gesture. 

"Goodbye," Calliope said. 

The path turned to white halfway up, the sky changing back to its usual black, the stars once again shining light instead of darkness. When they reached the top the house was a wreck, a molten mass of green and red and purple blocks, all piled on top of each other trying to crush and consume each other. It turned Calliope's stomach to watch. This time it was her who squeezed Roxy's shaking hand. 

"We're ready for this," Roxy said, half to herself. "Don't doubt yourself now."

"I won't," Calliope said, reaching out and feeling for the string that will pull them back to their friends. "I won't."


End file.
